
E 





X 






SPEECH 



OF 



HON. SAMUEL S. MARSHALL, 



OF ILLINOIS, 




ON THE 



INSANITY or THE TIMES, 



AND THE 



PRESENT CONDITION OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 



DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, AUGUST 6. 185G. 




WASHINGTON; 

miI>ftED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1856. 



CONDITION OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 



The House b(ung in the Committee of the Whole on Uie 
Slate of the Union — 

Mr. MARSHALL, of Illinois, said: 

Mr. Chairman: It is with much reluctance that 
1 engage in discussions here not pertaining to the 
business immediately before the House. With- 
out that position or reputation which would com- 
mand the ear of the House or the country, I 
shrink with natural timidity from- a comparison 
with the older and abler champions of popular 
rights on this floor. As a mere individual, I 
should feel it my duty to remain silent; but rep- 
resenting, as I do, a people, every pulsation of 
whose hearts beats with love and veneration for 
this Union, and for the Constitution of our coun- 
try, I feel that, in this momc ous crisis, they 
have a right to be heard througi. Jieir Represent- 
ative. Speaking, then, as I do, not for myself, 
but for more than one hundred thousand free 
citizens of this great Republic, I shall, with some 
confidence, claim the indulgence of the House for 
a very short time. 

Mr. Chairman, a strange and unaccountable 
madness has seized upon the public mind. To 
say that our country is no^' in imminent peril is 
only to give utterance to the painful feeling which 
pervades every heart. Misrule has grafted her 
empire in our very midst, and anarchy is inhaling 
the vital elements of her existence. 

We have, indeed, fallen upon strange times. 
The scenes daily transpiring — everything around 
us, portend that we are in the midst of dangers — 
that we are madly drifting towards the abyss of 
anarchy, disunion, and civil war, with all their 
dreadful evils. It is surely time for us to awaken 
to the dangers that surround us. It is time for 
every citizen who has a spark of patriotism left 
to pause in this mad struggle for parly, and sacri- 
ficii^g all his prejudices on the altar of his coun- 
try, take his stand by, and boldly make battle 
for, the Constitution and the Union. 

I am no alarmist; but it is not the part of wis- 
dom to trust too blindly in the strength of the 
bond. that binds us together. It has been hawked 



at and trifled with long enough. . When we 
remember that Greece, with all her power, her 
glory, and her learning — her proud monuments 
and free institutions, now lives only in the page 
of history; and that Rome's proud eagles have 
long since been humbled in the dust, we should 
not trust with too much confidence in the strength 
and perpetuity of our own matchless Republic. 

I am one of those, sir, who believe that there 
is a superintending Providence that guides and 
directs the destinies of nations. No one who has 
read the history of our revolutionary struggle can 
doubt that the Alniiighty raised uji the great men 
of that day for the special purpose of giving inde- 
pendence and freedom to this great continent. 
We have, indeed, been the peculiar favorites of 
Heaven; and have had, day by day, unnumbered 
blessings showered upon us. It is equally cer- 
tain, that there are times in the history of the 
world when the Ruler of the Universe becomes 
weary of man 's constant proclivity to wickedness 
and folly; and withdrawing his protecting care, 
leaves us to that inevitable destruction which 
must follow the dictates of our own passions, 
and the proinptings of our own unguided reason. 

The history of God's own chosen people, who, 
ungrateful, stubborn, and rebellious, were finally 
abandoned to the desolation and destruction re- 
sulting froiri their own madness and folly; — the 
wild fanaticism of the crusades, in the prosecu- 
tion of which death and desolation, in all their 
horrid forms, swept over the world, and the 
plains of Europe and Asia were whitened with 
the bones of millions of human beings;— the hor- 
rors of the French revolution, when infidelity 
took possession of the pulpit; irrcligion enthroned 
itself on the domestic altar; all that was vener- 
able and sacred in the past was uprooted and 
destroyed; and by an awful farce, the Bible it- 
self was publicly condemned and burnt, God 
dethroned, and the goddess of reason substituted 
as an object of their devotion; until at last the 
demons of the infernal regions seemed to be 
turned loose; misery and wretchedness spread 
their dark wings throughout the land; murder, 



unrebuked, shook his gory locks through all the 'face of Heaven. The sacred institution of mar- 
streets and iiighways, and human butchery be- riage, without which home would be deprived of all 
came the daily occupation of the rulers and the 'its endearments, and society return to barbarism, 
pastime of the people; — all these are familiar, but [is boldly and publicly denounced, and "free-love" 
not singular, illustrations of the truth' that man, I reformers have become the allies and fit compan- 



cut loose from the guidance of Providence, and 
the venerable and sacred teachings of the past, 
and relying \ipon his own unaided reason, ever 
rushes with fearful precipitation to madness and 
ruin. 
These reflections, Mr. Chairman, should by 



ions of Abolition societies and spirit-rapping con- 
venticles. 

In this once free and happy countr)', before 
the last lingering spirit of '76 is gathered to the 
home of his fathers, and almost before the warn- 
ing voice of Washington has died upon our 



no means be considered inapposite. Look at the ears, the fundamental principles of our Constitu- 
condition of our country and the presen; state of tion — the very principles which have heretofore 
the public mind. In the whole history of the 1 been our proudest boast — the right of self-govern- 
human race no parallel can be found to the pres- [ ment — the right of every man to worship God 
ent material prosperity of the American people; 'according to the dictates of his own conscience, 
and yet, as if intoxicated with our own abund- ' without molestation or hindrance from his fellow 
ance, we are almost on the eve of putting the ; man — and the solemn declaration of our Consli- 
knife to each other's thrnats. We claim to be I tution, that "no religious test shall ever be re- 
the freest people on earth, and yet we are sicken- j quired as a qualification to any office or public 
ing the hearts of the friends of freedom through- ;! trust under the United States' — our boast, that 
•Hit the world by our unnatural and suicidal ' ours is the home of the exile, and the asylum of 
quarrels. We believe ourselves to be the most J the oppressed — all these have been denounced 
intelligent and enlightened people that the sun 'land repudiated, and we have been threatened with 
shines on, and yet within the past few years j a return to the bigotry, the selfishness, the mad- 
there is no folly so great, no theory in religion, ; ness and folly of the darkest page of the history 
morals, or politics, so wild and visionary, that it ' of the world. Here, where every man has the 
will not find numerous and zealous advocates right, and it ought to be his pride, to walk forth 
among our people. in the light of day, and boldly speak his senti- 

Look around you, sir, and see the new and ex- 1! ments as a freeman, hundreds of thousands of 
traordinary folliis that are now rife in the land. | our people, of all professions and occupations, 
Pulpits once devoted to the salvation of immortal have, in the darkness and secrecy of night, as if 
souls, and to preaching "peace on earth and good 11 moved by some common insane impulse, gone 
will to men," have become arsenals for the col- j down into cellars, and caverns, and darkened 
lection of the bloody in.struments of death, and j| rooms, shut out from the light of heaven and the 
forums from which, by incendiary harangues, j observation of men, and after participating in ex- 
trcason and rebellicm are urged as a sacred duty |j traordinary and unpatriotic orgies and ceremo- 
unon excited and niissuided citizens. Professed |: nics, have emerged forth to the lia:ht of davwith 

'. . - . ^ . .- TT I 1 ll.l ■ 1 /•.. -J .1..- _1 l._"ll 1 I I 



ministers from Uie court of Heaven have, by 
thousands, abancloned the duties of their sacred 
calling, and are bringing sad disgrace upon the 
church,'by drnirgling tlu-ir robes in the dirty pool 
of political strife; and now, with a kind of solemn 
mockery, are, by scores, with their black coats 
and white cravats, filling seats once occupied by 
]iatriots and statesmen. 

In a country where it was fondly hoped that 



their souls fettered, their cheeks blanched, and 
their eyes averted from their friends to conceal 
the unpatriotic secret that was already struggling 
for utterance; and falsehood and deceit, to the 
slmiTie of our country, thus became the funda- 
mental principles of a political orgaiiization. 

A large portion of the Protestant Church, aban- 
doning the principles by which it has thus far 
triumphed, and bywhich it can alone triumph. 



the adulterou.s connection of Church and State, i has joined in an intolerant cry against freedom 
with its dread train of evils, had been severed !' of conscience; her ministers and laymen, dragged 
forever, an arrogant and bloated priesthood has I, down into these secrtU caverns, have formed an 
boldly attempted to usurp the reins of govern-! unholy connection with the vicious and corrupt 
ment, and assuming to speak by authority from who have been sloughed oflf from old party or- 
Heaven, " and in "the name of Almighty God,"rganizations. The Ciiurch has thus been degraded 
to dictate the action of an American Congress, hand demoralized by her professed friends; Chris- 
Thousands who are living in the daily enjoyment |l tianity put to the l)lush; irreligion sown broad- 
of the blessings of our matchless Government, be- 1' cast throughout the land, and the seeds of infi- 
i-.ause it gives no sanction to tin ir wild aiul crazy ' delity scattered, from which we will be reaping 
theories, now madly curse the Constitution and . the crop for generations to come. The right of 
the Union as "a covenant with death and an li sulfrnge, once deemed sacred, has been ruthlessly 
agreement with hell," and swear that they will |j invaded, and Ainerican citizens have been driven 
no longer consent to " a Union with slavehold- ij through our streets like beasts, and cruelly mur- 
ers." With a malignity that can n'c<;iv(' its in- : dered for attempting to exercise a rieht guaran- 
spiration only fromthe father of evil, they tra- itied by the highest sanctions of the Constitution, 
duce the patriots of the Revolution, and with their i| Mobs have been systematically organized, with 
traitorous feet rudely trample on the graves of ; signs, grips, and passwords, and brcomc favored 
Washington and his compatriots. Anil because i| adjuncts of a political party; and men, women, 
the Bil>le neither denounci'S nor "ignores" the!: and children have been cruelly murdered for no 
in.stitutions of fifteen States of this Union, these ■ other off.nse than having been born on the banks 
modiTn Solomons have discovered a hi^'lu'r law ' of the Rhine or the Shannon, instead of the Hud- 
thnn the Constitution or the word of God, and j son or Mississippi, and for coming from the same 
madly hurl their horrible anathemas in the very || lands our forefathers came from, and with pre- 



cisely the same purpose — of finding free and 
happy homes in this. 

The ballot-box, once the sacred instrument 
through which a freeman in peace and safety 
made known his will, has been invaded, trampled 
upon, and broken to nieces, and its contents scat- 
tered to the four wnids of heaven, and the will 
of the majority superseded by mob violence and 
usurpation. 

Mr. Chairman, this is no exaggerated picture. 
It falls far short of the reality. Would to God 
that 1 possessed the painter's skill to present at 
one view this wild fanaticism, this dreadful de- 
moralization of the public mind, that has been 
sweeping over the country for the last few years ! 
The world would stand aghast at the horrid pic- 
ture ! 

Your mind, Mr. Chairman, may not heretofore 
have been called to the fact, but the truth of what 
I shall now utter can be denied by no one, and 
the fact itself ought to give food for solemn thought 
to every lover of his country. Look around over 
this broad land, from the Saint Lawrence to the 
Rio Grande, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 
you will find, without exception, that all these 
isms, these devotees of the most transparent fol- 
lies, and most wicked practices — the worshipers: 
of Sam, and the worshipers of Sambo; the dis- 
union Abolitionists and the oath-bound Catholic- 
haters; the men who curse the Constitution of 
their country, and the men who curse the Bible 
of the living God ; the parsons who have degraded 
their Jioly calling, and the mobocratic demol- 
ishers of ballot-boxes; the conductors of under- 
ground railroads, and the murderers of natural- 
ized citizens; the spirit-rapping devotee, and the 
religious maniac in his ascension robes; free-love 
societies. Abolition societies, and woman's rights 
conventions; slungshot bullies, Sharpe's rifle 
theologians, and the common defamers of the 
revolutionary history of sovereign States — all, 
without exception, join in one wild howl against 
the great Democratic party of the country. This 
strange compound of madness, fanaticism, and 
folly, without any common political sentiment, 
disagreeing among themselves upon every prin- 
ciple of government, religion, and morals, have 
yet one common bond of union that binds them 
together like hooks of steel, and that is opposi- 
tion, hatred — irreconcilable, undying hatred — to 
that great party which was founded by Jefferson, 
illustrated by Madison, Jackson, and Polk, and 
which is now the only party that stands by the 
Union, and by the Constitution of our country, ' 
as our fathers made it. ; 

Prominent in this strange medley of united 
fanaticisms and inconsistencies (and embracing 
the greater part of them) stands the great Black 
Republican party of the North, whose members 
here and throughout the country have scrupled 
at no falsehood, and paused at no crime, that 
might help to inflame and excite the public mind 
already driven to the very verge of madness. 
Their cries of " plighted faith," " sacred com-! 
pact," " slave aggression," "free Kansas," and { 
the like, are but instruments for carrying out the \ 
plans of tlieir great leader, laid down ei^ht years j 
ago, and before the organization of Kansas was 
thought of, when, in his speech at Cleveland, he j 
marked out the plan by which he could " sooji 
brUig the parties of the country into an effective ,| 



aggression upon slavery." Agitation is the very 
life-blood of this party, without which they know 
they could have no existence; and in trying to 
keep up a bountiful supply of this their natural 
aliment, they have shown an utter disregard of 
the peace and prosperity of the country, and 
even of the existence of the Union itself. 

These agitators have been true to no theory, 
and consistent in nothing which they have as- 
serted or advocated. Aff'ecting regret at the un- 
fortunate diflieulties in Kansas, which have been 
caused by their own officious "and illegal inter- 
meddling, they have nevertheless opposed and 
defeated every measure intended or calculated to 
give peace and quiet to that Territory. Profess- 
ing a holy horror of some obnoxious and uncon- 
stitutional enactments of the Territorial Legisla- 
ture, the)^ have voted down an act proposing their 
repeal. Having petitioned the President to send 
the army to Kansas, they now denounce him for 
complying with their demands. Affecting great 
distrust of the President, they have passed through 
the House a measure proposing to give him un- 
constitutional and even despotic powers. Their 
own committee, chosen by themselves, and sent 
to Kansas to make capital for the approaching 
elections, returns, and reports, " that in the present 
condition of the Territory a fair election cannot be 
held nnthout a new census, a stringent and well reg- 
\dated election law, the selection of impartial judges, 
and the preKence of United States troops at everyplace 
of election." Almost immediately upon the pub- 
lication of this report, a bill is passed through the 
Senate, proposing to carry out, in every particu- 
lar, these suggestions; and yet these men, to the 
surprise of all candid and patriotic citizens, im- 
mediately denounce this bill as a measure of the 
" slave power," and an attempt to make Kansas 
a slave State. 

Mr. Chairman, the conviction is forced upon 
my mind that this party is determined,. at all 
hazards, to prevent a settlement of these unfortu- 
nate difficulties; and nothing seems to afford them 
so much pleasure as new reports, whether true or 
false, of additional murders, outrages, and vio- 
lence. Gentlemen of this unholy, this treason- 
able organization, I say to you now, that, smile 
as you may in your fancied security — wrapped in 
your cloak of privilege, and sustained as you 
may be by an excited and misguided constituency, 
you will yet be called to a fearful account for your 
conduct in this crisis of our country's destiny. 
You are the real instigators of all this violence 
and crime. Upon your heads will finally rest the 
guilt and the infamy. By your course you have 
precipitated these fearful evils u]ion the country. 
When this day of insanity and madness shall 
have passed away; when the sober reason of the 
people shall have returned; when truth, now ob- 
scured by brazen and unblushing falsehood, shall 
shine forth in her true colors; when the motives 
of the actors in this sad drama shall be fully 
known and appreciated, and uncloaked hypocrites 
shall stand exposed, naked, and trembling in their 
unmasked deformity, many, who are now exult- 
ing in their fancied success, will call fori'ocks and 
mountains to fall upon them and hide them from 
the indignation of an abused and outraged public. 
One alleged excuse for this Abolition crusade is, 
that the Legislature of^ansas was a usurpation, 
and its acts void. That may be so, or it may 



6 



not. This is a question w)iich the courts, and 
the courts alone, can properly try and determine. 
I shall not, here or elsewhere, become an apolo- 
gist for the violators of law in Kansas. Those 
who have attem|)ted to control her destiny by 
iileg:al voting, or by violence, whether they come 
from Massachusetts or Missouri, from Illinois 
or South Carolina, deserve to be visited with the 
heaviest penalties of the law. To me it makes 
no difference from whence they come. They 
liavc been ^"'''7 of enormities that ou»lU not to 
go unpunished. They have defaced the image of 
God, and been guilty of treason against Heaven, 
against free government, and the rights of man. 
But the only code of laws in existence by which 
theycan be punislied.is this much-abused Kansas 
code. That there was wrong and fraud in the 
election of many of the mehibers of this Kansas 
Legislature, I think is very probable. I regret 
that such was the case. As a lawyer, I do not 
think tliat such would be the result, but it is even 
possible that the courts would hold that these acts 
are void. The consequences of such a decision 
would be dreadful to society; and yet that is what 
these "Repul'licans" have proposed to do by 
direct legislation. I have examined these Kansas 
laws with some care, and I assert iiere, without 
the fear of contradiction, tliat as a code, with 
some few exceptions, they are worthy of all com- 
mendation. They provide a remedy for almost 
every wrong, and a penalty for every possible 
crime; and in a volume of five or six hundred 
pages, there are but some half a dozen cTiactments 
that any man can with good reason object to. 
These we have proposed to repeal, or dech\re 
void, because they were in violation of funda- 
mental principles of the Constitution, and the 
organic act of the Territory — but these model 
"Republicans" have pri\Tnted us from doing so. 
Nothing will satisfy them but a repeal of the 
whole code in a liody. Their papers are filled, 
day by day, witli accounts of the perpetration 
of the most enormous crimes in Kansas bj' the 
"border ruffians," and yet they would blot out 
of existence the only code of laws under wliich 
these men can be brought to trial and punish- 
ment. If the Missourians have violated the elec- 
tion laws, illegally taken possession of the polls, 
or destroyed the ballot-boxes, I want to see them, 
every man of them, brought to trial and punish- 
ment. If Mississippians have gone to thatTcrri-' 
tory and conmiitted robberies, arsons, and bur- 
glaries, I want to see the severest penalties of the 
law visited upon them. If Carolinians haveindeid 
gone there and brutally nuirdered our "free-State" 
men, I want to see them hung so high that they 
may prove a warning to all evil-disposed persons 
in the future. Hut this will not satisfy these vir- 
tuous Republicans. They must repeal these laws, 
and thereby legalize treason, murder, anarchy, 
and violence. Repeal these laws, and the traitor 
and the niurderer is placed upon a iierfect equal- 
ity with the virtuous and U|)right citizen. Repeal 
these laws, and the man whose soul is blackened 
with every crime, and whose skirls may be drip- 
ping with the bldod of nuirdered freemen, will 
walk forth free and unfettered as the winds of 
heaven. Such an enormous proposition was 
never heard of before since the world began; and 
yet this is just what is pi#posud by lliese model 
Republicans. 



Admit that there are obnoxious enactments in 
this code: it does not follow that that gives us the 
right to deprive the people of Kansas of their 
most sacred heritage — the right of self-govern- 
ment. Is theirs the only Legislature that has 
passed foolish or obnoxious laws? Why, sir, 
there is not a Sate in the Union that has not done 
the same thing. But the people affected thereby 
always discover the evil, and provide a remedy 
in due time, and that without any officious inter- 
meddling from without. 

Have those Representatives of that honored old 
Commonwealth, who are now so much troubled 
about this Kansas code, and so much in love with 
the negro race, forgotten that at one time, in Mas- 
sachusetts, there were statutes providing for ban- 
ishing Baptists from the Colony, and forbidding 
any one to speak against infant baptism? — deny- 
ing the son of the Emerald Isle the right to set 
his foot upon her soil? — punishing with death all 
persons (even the untutored Indians) who should 
speak against the established religion as " a po- 
litic device to keep ignorant men in awe ?" — pun- 
ishing with banishment and death persons pro- 
fessing the Roman Catholic religion ? — punishing 
with imprisonment inoffensive Quakers, and 
cutting off their cars, and boring their tongues 
with a red-hot iron, for no crime except tliat of 
being true to their own faith ? — and banishing 
citizens for even speaking against these laws? 
?Iave they forgotten the infamy of the " Hiss 
I Legislature, " or the passage of the famous " per- 
sonal liberty bill?" The $:ood people of Massa- 
chusetts have corrected most of these evils of 
[ legislation; but they never would have permitted 
any other people to have dictated to them the 
, lime or mode of repealing these laws. If there 
! are other evils that need correcting, they are com- 
I petenl to find the remedy, without any orHcious 
; intermeddling of others. And this is ;>!! that is 
asked for the people of Kansas — that th-y may 
i be left free to frame their own laws, and to correct 
I their own evils of legislation. 
I In this allusion to the early history of Massa- 
chusetts legislation, I am not willing that my 
motives shall be inisunderstood. If I had the 
; power, I could not be induced to dim the lustre 
j of her glorious history. I have no sym[)athy 
I with gentlemen who may attempt to detract from 
the fair fame of any portion of our common coun- 
try; nor can they in this way all'ord me any 
pleasure, command my gratitude, or secure my 
respect. The noljle deeds of Massachusi tts con- 
stitute a part of tlie common herit;ige in which I 
j claim a part. Her soil is a cherished portion of 
I this great country; and her Lexington, and Con- 
! cord, and Bunker Hill, are holy places, ehirished . 
! in the hearts of all true Americans. Evt ry State, 
' every nook and corner, of thi.s broad land, I 
j feel to be a portion of my country, whose repu- 
I lation and glory I ciierish, and whose fame I 
would be the last to deface. 

I refer to these enactments only to prove that 
even the most eiiligiited communities will at times 
I [)ass very foolish and very unjust laws; and tliat 
the only safe or justifiable rule under our .system 
is for every people to attend to the correction of 
their own evils and their own laws, and leave 
other communities the right and privilege of doing 
the same thing lor themselves. Unforiunately, 
I the disposition to intermeddle witli, and try to 



control, the legislation, and even the religion, of 
others, with which we can have, rightfully, noth- , 
ing to do, has spread throughout the land, and : 
has at length brought us almost to the verge of j 
disunion and civil war. _ | 

Another wing of this allied army engaged in i 
this unholy warfare against the Democratic party, ] 
is the southern branch, of the Know Nothing 
party; the northern branch, with very few ex- 
ceptions, having been swallowed up and com- 
pletely identified with the Black Republican 
movement. Of this secret, oath-bound organiza- 
tion, I shall have very little to say. Its life has 
been brief but eventful, and even now it is in the 
very act of giving up the ghost. As improbable 
as it will appear to future generations who may 
read the history of these times, there is no doubt 
that the great mass of the people who have been 
entrapped within the meshes of this strange or- 
ganization, entered it with the purest motivesand 
most patriotic purposes. They have discovered 
their error, and are now rapidly retracing their 
steps; and when the frosts of November shall 
visit us, the immortal "Sam" will have passed 
away from the earth, and the place that knows 
him now will know him no more forever. Born 
of bigotry aiid intolerance, he was conceived in 
sin and brought forth in iniquity. His strange 
birth, rapid growth, violent life, and sudden 
death, will form an interesting study for the future 
politician and historian. Like Jonah's gourd, 
he sprung up full grown in a night-time only to 
■wither and die before the light of the morning 
sun. But brief as has been his career, he has 
left footprints upon our institutions that it will 
take ages to eradicate. But I will not dwell- on 
this view of the subject. 

For the members of that party whom I have 
met on this floor, (I mean those who have a just 
claim to nationality in their feelings and senti- 
ments,) I entertain, personally, the kindest feel- 
ings. Those with whom I have become more 
intimate, I hope always to rank among my per- 
sonal friends. But candor and truth compel me 
to add that, in my own opinion, when the history 
of these times is written, the blackest page will 
be that which records the ingratitude of the south- 
ern Know Nothings to the Democratic party of 
the northern States. The great battle which has 
raged for the last two years throughout the North 
between Abolition fanaticism on the one side, and 
the defenders of the Constitution and the constitu- 
tional rights of the South on the other, has been 
the fiercest, the most bitter, proscriptive, and 
relentless, known to the history of our country. 
The great Abolition sea swelled, and its waters 
rolled towards the national capital. Its billows 
dasked against the pillars of the Constitution and 
threatened to ingulf us all. But wherever the 
storm raged fierest and the waves rolled highest, 
the national men of the North were found strug- 

fling, with almost superhuman efforts, to beat 
ack this Abolition deluge from the capital. Many 
of these men were beaten down by the enemy; 
but the survivors, although they saw their breth- 
ren falling on the right hand and on the left, still 
fought on with courage and confidence. 

And who are these men, who, at the sacrifice 
of ease and comfort, and in the face of political 
and social ostracism, thus battled, day after day, 
for the rights of their distant brethren, and the 



integrity of the Union ? Among them you will 
find Cass, and Douglas, and Richardson, and 
Willard, and Hallet, and indeed, the entire De- 
mocracy of the whole North; but you may cast 
your eye over the whole field, from Maine to Cal- 
ifornia, and you will not find one single member 
of the Know Nothing party engaged in this con- 
test on the side of the Constitution. Your Know 
Nothing Banks, and Wilson, and Burlingatne, 
and Fuller, and men of like kidney, were in the 
contest, but their blows were aimed at the De- 
mocracy, and not at this dangerous Abolition fac- 
tion. Your national men, if you had them, were 
lying still while this storm was raging, and struck 
no blow for the principles of the Constitution. 
Your Fillmore, at a safe distance from the scene 
of conflict, was quietly sipping his wine with the 
Pope of Rome, or basking in the smiles of some 
crowned head of Euorpe. The position of your 
Henry M. Fuller, to say the best you can of him, 
was so uncertain, that his Black Republican col- 
leagues from his own State, voted for him for weeks 
for Speaker of the present House, under the belief 
that iie was as good a Free-Soiler as themselves. 
If he had ever, previous to that time, raised hia 
hand once, and struck even one blow for the con- 
stitutional rights of the South, he could not under, 
any circumstances have received one of these 
votes. Fuller's record, as he has patched it up 
here at the instigation of his southern friends, 
does not better his condition. Take it altogether, 
as stated by himself on this floor, and it is just 
this, and you can make nothing else of it: " I 
do not believe that the Federal Government has 
any power to legislate on the subject of slavery 
in the Territories; and as the President and Sen- 
ate are against us, we cannot now restore the 
Missouri restriction, and, therefore, I am opposed 
to agitating the subject. But, if loe had lite Pr«si- 
dent and the Senate with us, I would vote to restore 
that restriction, notwithstanding, in my opinion, it 
would be a violation of the Constitution and an in- 
vasion of the constitutional rights of the South." 
ForGiDDiNGs (who believes that we have the con- 
stitutional power) to vote to prohibit slavery in the 
Territories there is some excuse; but for Hknry 
M. Fuller, who believes that such a restriction 
would be a Federal usurpation, to declare, in the 
face of this House and the country, that he would 
vote to place it on the statute-book, is to exhibit 
a depth of fanaticism, or a cowardice in bending 
to the force of Abolition sentiment, that ought to 
damn him forever. And yet, this is the man 
whom you "South Americans" have tried to 
bolster up as a national man, and proclaimed as 
one up6n whom the South could safely rely. 

It is an easy matter for you Know jSjothings of 
the South , removed far away from the scenes of the 
conflict, supported and cheered on by your entire 
constituency, to denounce this northern fanati- 
cism; but it is a difterent thing when, by standing 
by the rights of the South, you subject yourself 
to political and social ostracism, to the hatred 
and denunciation of your neighbors, to insult and 
mob violence; and for southern men to shut their 
eyes to the truth in regard to this great battle 
which is still raging throughout the North, and 
to continue your misrepresentations of those who 
are battling for your rights, is to be guilty of treason 
against the rights of your own constituents. And 
yet my colleague, [Colonel Richardson,] who has 



epent a whole life time in baitling: against Ab> 
tionisniand Free-Soilism, in ail its various fori 
who conducted the fi<rht and carried the Kan; 
Nebraska bill through the House of Represe 
lives; who returned liome and beat back the I 
lition waves that threatened to overwhelm the 
Capitol; and, when these billows beat even against 



^ONGREss 




iuspices our coun- 
,ed, and expanded, 
test, the most inde- 

on of evils resulting 
happiest people on 

very additional ac- 
jeen achieved, and 



the doors of his own home, stood firm and unap- ! every new extension of the Republic has been 



palled, in a contest for many weeks here, did not 

receive one single vote for Speaker from this 

" South American" party, while you conld all 

vote without hesitation for the aforesaid Henry 

M. FuLLi.ER. But this is not all. No less dis- , . _ ^ ^ 

tinguished a gentleman than the able representa- | the resources of the valley of the great Father 

tive from the Nashville district, [Mr. Zollicof- ; of Waters. Under its auspices Texas was 



made. Under its auspices and protection our 

empire took up its wonderful march westward, 

and lovely towns and smiling villages have sprung 

, and decorate the banks of the beautiful Ohio, 

ts auspices our people are developing 



up, ana i 
Under i 



FEB.,] rises in his seat here, and in the face of the 
whole country declares that such men as Rich- 



acquired, and our Hag now proudly floats on the 
banks of the Rio Grande. Under its auspices 



ARDSON, and Docgi.as, and Stephens, are more ,, our people have passed the barriers of the Rocky 
dangerous to the South than the Abolitionists, j' Mountains, taken possession of the golden sands 



This partial vindication of the Abolitionists by a 
southern man surprised us all at the time; but it 
was easily understood when, a few weeks after- 
wards, we saw your Humph hey Marsh alls, your 
Readys, and your Zollicuffers, silting down 
in convention at Philadelphia, and consulting as 
to the best mode of defeating the Democracy, with 
such rank Abolitioni.sts as Governor Ford, of 
Ohio, and men of like kidney — men that a north- 
ern Democrat would not touch with a forty foot 
Eole. You denounce and misrepresent northern 
•emocrats who come here covered with the dust 
and smoke of battle, and covered all over with 
the scars of wounds received in this great con- 
test with Abolitionism, while you extend the right 
hand of fellowsliip to the rankest Abolitionists 
in the land; and yet you jiroclaim yourselves 
the peculiar guardians of the rights of the South. 
I do not doubt your devotion to your own inter- 
ests and the interests and rights of your own 
eection; but your judgments have been so warped 
by partisan jirejudice and hatred of the Democratic 
party that you must be numbered among those 
who " having eyes see not, and having ears will 
not hear the things that pertain to your own sal- 
vation." 

And all these factions are arrayed for the 
destruction of the Democratic party, and that, 
too, at a time when it presents the only barrier 
to the success of treason and fanaticism. This 
is surely no time to disband or abandon that 
glorious old party; a party that recognises the 
equality of the Slates and the political equality 
of every citizen of the Republic; a party that, 
like the dews of Heaven, dispenses iis blessings 
to all alike. This ]>arty is of no mushroom 

frowth, and was engendered neither in the hot- 
ed of faniticism nor of religious bigotry. It was 
born with the Constitution; and, planting itself 
by the side of that sacred instrument, it has 
" grown with its growth and strengiheiied with 
its strength." It came into power in the infancy 



of California, and are daily launching their ves- 
sels on the Pacific's dark blue waves. Under 
its auspices our flag now whitens every sea, 
and visits every isle that gems the bosom of 
the ocean. And this party, purified by the fires 
of persecution, and invigorated with the best 
blood of the old Whig party, now occupies a 
prouder position than in any previous portion 
of its history. 

And will you now ask us to abandon this party 
while it is fighting the great battle of the Consti- 
tution and the Union? Will you ask us to unite 
with these new factions born of folly and mad- 
ness, which have introduced strife, and mobs, 
and violence, and bigotry, intolerance, and fanat- 
icism.' — and which have already almost destroyed 
the* best Government God ever gave to man .' 
Heaven forbid that we should do so ! No; we will 
stand by our old party as long as there is one 
plank of the Constitution left for us to defend. 
While the cohorts of fanaticism are marshaling 
under the black banner of treason, and their 
blows are heard at the outward portals of our 
temple, we cannot take down our flag without 
being guilty of treason against Heaven and lib- 
erty. 

" Ours is no sapling, cliance-sown by the founiain, 
Ulonmiug at Beltane, in winter tii lade ; 
Wlicii the whirlwind lias stripped every leaf from the 
niounlaiii, 
The more shall Clan Alpine exult in his shade ; 
Moored in the rifted rock, 
Proof to the tempest shock, 
Firmer he roots him llic ruder it blows." 

Mr. Chairman, the great battle of the Consti- 
tution and the Union is now being fought. Those 
who would strike one blow for the Constitution 
I made by our fathers must rally under the flag of 
the Democratic party. There is now no other 
I hope for the country. If that party is destroyed, 
I the Constitution and the Union must go down 
j with it. May Heaven avert this awful calamity ! 



J 



librar 



yoF 



COAJG 



^fss 



OOl 



898 



292 7 



